Latest news with #NickKharufeh
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Stem cell transplant restores vision in patient who was blinded in left eye after injury
Nick Kharufeh said he never thought he would see out of his left eye again after suffering an injury several years ago. Now, he is advocating for the procedure that restored his vision. The accident that cost Kharufeh his vision occurred on July 4, 2020, when he was at his aunt's house in Rialto, California -- about 10 miles north of Riverside -- for a block party, he said. Fireworks were lit for the holiday, with one of them exploding onto the ground instead of shooting up in the air, he told ABC News. The 28-year-old said the sparks "came into the crowd on both sides of the street," with Kharufeh getting a direct hit in his left eye. He approached his dad and said, "Hey, I can't see out of my left eye," but the damage couldn't be examined because it was dark outside. Kharufeh went inside to show his mom, who took one look at him and passed out, he said. "I was like, 'You know what, this is bad,'" Khaurfeh told ABC News. Once he arrived at the hospital, doctors told Kharufeh they would need to "remove whatever was left" of his eye. But a specialist later discovered his eye was still intact, and would not need to be taken out. MORE: Robin Roberts marks 12 years since 'GMA' return after stem cell transplant "He decided, 'You can keep it, it's probably very risky. You're never going to see out of it again, but it's there,'" Kharufeh said. "When I heard that, I felt a sigh of relief. I knew I might not be able to see perfectly fine out of it, but I knew I could keep it and see if anything ever came up." He said he received a second opinion from another hospital, who confirmed his eye was intact, but they emphasized to Kharufeh that "there's not really any procedures that can fix that." Kharufeh, who was 23 at the time, moved back home with his parents and tried to hide his injury from the world. "I didn't even look at myself in the mirror. I didn't tell any of my friends about it for months," Kharufeh said. But in September 2020, his mom found out about a clinical trial in Boston for a first-of-its-kind operation that could potentially restore Kharufeh's cornea and bring back his vision. The trial was held at Mass Eye and Ear, an international center for treatment that is a member of Mass General Brigham and a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. "When I found out Mass Eye and Ear could help me, or that they were at least willing to try, it was a huge weight lifted off my chest," Kharufeh said. "I was willing to give up my whole life to come out here." The treatment, called a cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation -- or CALEC -- can help restore surface corneal epithelial cells, which can be destroyed after chemical burns, infections or other injuries, according to Dr. Ula Jurkunas, an ophthalmologist and associate director of the cornea service at Mass Eye and Ear who performed Kharufeh's surgery. "This is the first stem cell trial in the cornea in the U.S., and is paving the way for further treatments of this sort," Jurkunas told ABC News. When the cells are depleted in the cornea, patients can then experience painful blindness and a loss of vision, Jurkunas said. Restoring those stem cells by growing them in a lab can treat the cell deficiency that gives rise to corneal blood vessel growth, cloudiness and pain, Jurkunas said. Jurkunas said the transplant involves taking a small biopsy from a healthy eye, extracting the stem cells in a lab, growing them to a sheet of cells that can "later be transplanted onto the patient's diseased eye." MORE: Paralyzed man who can walk again shows potential benefit of stem cell therapy Kharufeh said his biopsy occurred in January 2021 and his transplant was completed the next month. In the years after the operation, Kharufeh said his vision is restored to about 50% of what it was before. He added that his pain has vanished and the appearance of his eye "looks a lot more normal." "I couldn't work for a couple of years; I couldn't meet new people. So [I am] very happy with where it's at now," Kharufeh said. Out of the 14 trial participants, about 92% were able to have a restoration of the corneal surface at 12 to 18 months post-operation, and 72% experienced vision improvement, Jurkunas said. After the knowledge gained from this trial, Jurkunas said this operation could be available for "many more patients" and hopes to develop a way to treat those with bilateral eye injuries. Kharufeh said he hopes that as more people learn about the CALEC procedure, it will become a mainstream form of treatment and "the next big thing" for patients with eye injuries. "Fourth of July is not going away, fireworks are not going away, so [these injuries are] going to keep happening," Kharufeh said. "Being able to see again, look at yourself in the mirror and look like you is just so impactful." Kharufeh said he will run the Boston Marathon in April for Mass Eye and Ear to raise money for those wanting to have the CALEC procedure. Stem cell transplant restores vision in patient who was blinded in left eye after injury originally appeared on
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Stem cell transplant restores vision in patient who was blinded in left eye after injury
Nick Kharufeh said he never thought he would see out of his left eye again after suffering an injury several years ago. Now, he is advocating for the procedure that restored his vision. The accident that cost Kharufeh his vision occurred on July 4, 2020, when he was at his aunt's house in Rialto, California -- about 10 miles north of Riverside -- for a block party, he said. Fireworks were lit for the holiday, with one of them exploding onto the ground instead of shooting up in the air, he told ABC News. The 28-year-old said the sparks "came into the crowd on both sides of the street," with Kharufeh getting a direct hit in his left eye. He approached his dad and said, "Hey, I can't see out of my left eye," but the damage couldn't be examined because it was dark outside. Kharufeh went inside to show his mom, who took one look at him and passed out, he said. "I was like, 'You know what, this is bad,'" Khaurfeh told ABC News. Once he arrived at the hospital, doctors told Kharufeh they would need to "remove whatever was left" of his eye. But a specialist later discovered his eye was still intact, and would not need to be taken out. MORE: Robin Roberts marks 12 years since 'GMA' return after stem cell transplant "He decided, 'You can keep it, it's probably very risky. You're never going to see out of it again, but it's there,'" Kharufeh said. "When I heard that, I felt a sigh of relief. I knew I might not be able to see perfectly fine out of it, but I knew I could keep it and see if anything ever came up." He said he received a second opinion from another hospital, who confirmed his eye was intact, but they emphasized to Kharufeh that "there's not really any procedures that can fix that." Kharufeh, who was 23 at the time, moved back home with his parents and tried to hide his injury from the world. "I didn't even look at myself in the mirror. I didn't tell any of my friends about it for months," Kharufeh said. But in September 2020, his mom found out about a clinical trial in Boston for a first-of-its-kind operation that could potentially restore Kharufeh's cornea and bring back his vision. The trial was held at Mass Eye and Ear, an international center for treatment that is a member of Mass General Brigham and a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. "When I found out Mass Eye and Ear could help me, or that they were at least willing to try, it was a huge weight lifted off my chest," Kharufeh said. "I was willing to give up my whole life to come out here." The treatment, called a cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation -- or CALEC -- can help restore surface corneal epithelial cells, which can be destroyed after chemical burns, infections or other injuries, according to Dr. Ula Jurkunas, an ophthalmologist and associate director of the cornea service at Mass Eye and Ear who performed Kharufeh's surgery. "This is the first stem cell trial in the cornea in the U.S., and is paving the way for further treatments of this sort," Jurkunas told ABC News. When the cells are depleted in the cornea, patients can then experience painful blindness and a loss of vision, Jurkunas said. Restoring those stem cells by growing them in a lab can treat the cell deficiency that gives rise to corneal blood vessel growth, cloudiness and pain, Jurkunas said. Jurkunas said the transplant involves taking a small biopsy from a healthy eye, extracting the stem cells in a lab, growing them to a sheet of cells that can "later be transplanted onto the patient's diseased eye." MORE: Paralyzed man who can walk again shows potential benefit of stem cell therapy Kharufeh said his biopsy occurred in January 2021 and his transplant was completed the next month. In the years after the operation, Kharufeh said his vision is restored to about 50% of what it was before. He added that his pain has vanished and the appearance of his eye "looks a lot more normal." "I couldn't work for a couple of years; I couldn't meet new people. So [I am] very happy with where it's at now," Kharufeh said. Out of the 14 trial participants, about 92% were able to have a restoration of the corneal surface at 12 to 18 months post-operation, and 72% experienced vision improvement, Jurkunas said. After the knowledge gained from this trial, Jurkunas said this operation could be available for "many more patients" and hopes to develop a way to treat those with bilateral eye injuries. Kharufeh said he hopes that as more people learn about the CALEC procedure, it will become a mainstream form of treatment and "the next big thing" for patients with eye injuries. "Fourth of July is not going away, fireworks are not going away, so [these injuries are] going to keep happening," Kharufeh said. "Being able to see again, look at yourself in the mirror and look like you is just so impactful." Kharufeh said he will run the Boston Marathon in April for Mass Eye and Ear to raise money for those wanting to have the CALEC procedure. Stem cell transplant restores vision in patient who was blinded in left eye after injury originally appeared on
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'In that moment, that was everything to me': Patient describes joy of regaining vision in 1 eye after new stem cell therapy
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On Independence Day 2020, Nick Kharufeh was enjoying a fireworks display on the street near his aunt's house in California. Then, within a split second, the fun stopped. A wayward firework meandered off course and exploded on the ground near Kharufeh, and bits of the explosive struck the cornea of his left eye. The accident left Kharufeh — who was 23 years old, and six years into training to be a commercial pilot at the time — completely blind in one eye. "My dad was right outside [the house] and it was dark out, so he couldn't fully tell what had happened," Kharufeh told Live Science. "And I was like, 'I feel like I can't see out of my left eye.'" Related: Gene-therapy drops restore teen's vision after genetic disease left his eyes clouded with scars At the hospital, doctors initially feared that Kharufeh's eye had been completely destroyed and would need to be taken out. However, after cleaning the debris from his eye, a specialist saw that aside from his cornea, the rest of Kharufeh's eye remained intact. What followed was months of treatments, involving waking up multiple times in the night to apply medicated eye drops, taking drugs to manage the pain, and undergoing a couple of surgeries, which included cleaning up the remaining debris and an unsuccessful attempt at reconstructing his eyelid. "It was a rough few months," Kharufeh said. "I didn't leave the house, I didn't tell anybody what happened because I was kind of embarrassed about it — because your eyes are the window to your soul, so I felt like my identity was just gone." Later that year, Kharufeh's mom told him about an advertisement she'd seen from the Mass Eye and Ear, a Harvard teaching hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The hospital was seeking volunteers to participate in a clinical trial of a new stem cell therapy for patients with irreversible corneal damage. The experimental therapy — called "cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cell transplantation" (CALEC) — works by taking stem cells from a patient's healthy eye, growing them into sheets of cells in the lab and then transplanting them into the damaged eye. Once implanted, these new sheets of cells form a surface on which normal tissue can grow back. Kharufeh decided to make the move to Boston with his mom to take part in the trial, which was starting the following January in 2021. "At first I was hesitant because they had to do surgery on my good eye, so I was really nervous," Kharufeh said. But then, immediately after the first of two transplants, Kharufeh saw positive results. He remembers the moment when he walked into his Airbnb in Massachusetts and could see the bright blue color of his comforter. At that time, he was about eight months out from his firework injury. Image 1 of 2 Image 2 of 2 Nick's eye approximately two years after receiving his first stem cell transplant at Mass Eye and Ear. "I'll never forget [that moment]," Kharufeh said. "And it sounds so little. It's just like, 'Okay, a little blue comforter.' But in that moment that was everything to me, and I literally cried for so long." Prior to Kharufeh receiving the new CALEC therapy, the treatment had initially been tested in a small clinical trial of just four patients with corneal damage. That trial, whose results were shared in 2018, marked the first-ever test of a stem cell therapy for the eyes in the U.S., the research team said at the time. After the small trial demonstrated the therapy's safety and efficacy, the team conducted a larger trial with 15 patients, one of whom was Kharufeh. The findings of the larger trial were published March 4 in the journal Nature Communications, and overall, the treatment was found to be effective at repairing blinding damage to the cornea in 93% of the patients involved. Follow-up trials are still to come and could ensure the treatment's official approval. Now, at age 28 and five years out from his injury, Kharufeh still lives in Boston where he works in sales for a travel company. The vision from his left eye is not perfect, but he says that the injury doesn't cause him issues during his everyday life. For instance, if he were to cover his right eye with his hand, he would still be able to locate objects and navigate himself around. RELATED STORIES —A dozen squirming fly larvae cause man's 'itchy eye' —Blind people could 'see' letters that scientists drew on their brains with electricity —Nerve damage in cornea could be sign of 'long COVID,' study hints In April, he intends to run the Boston Marathon to help raise money for Mass Eye and Ear. "I think it's given me a whole new life," Kharufeh said of the stem-cell therapy. "Now it's the point where I can actually feel normal."
